A LEPROSY SCARE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 103, 3 May 1922, Page 8

A LEPROSY SCARE.

ATTENDANTS IN CHURCH. ! NO CAUSE FOR ALARM. i i , I (By Telegraph. - I'-phs Association! j CHRISTCHUBCH, this day. ! T'iie fact that a number of attendants at the leper station on Quail Island in Wellington harbour regularly attend church services at ( hartcris Bay has : occasioned some alarm among residents .of the bay, who feel they are he.ng nepd- ; lcssly exposed to danger of contracting the disease. It is stated that for this reason some of them do not attend eervice. A "Star" reporter Dr. Tel-; I ford. Medical Officer of Health, if there : ■was any ground for alarm. "There is . not the slightest occasion for any alarm," he replied. The degree of in-, fectivity with leprosy, he added, was comparatively slight, and it was oiil.V| jby contact that the disease was likely i Jto be contracted. Tuberculosis wars a i more contagious dieeas' , , and if it was jas rare ac leprosy the ?ame precautions I would be taken to prevent its spread Jas were now taken with leprosy. Aβ I I for attendants going to church services there was no need for him to object to. such action. With leprosy there was no i euch th'ng as a "carrier." A person either had the difease or did not have it. The attendants did not come into personal contact with t'ne patients. The lepers lived on a separate part of the island from the attendants, and were divided from them by a wire fence. The lepers had their own dishee, and when i requiring food s'mplv brought these I dUhes to the fenoc and food was placed Jin them. PatipnU nnd attendant* sol- ] dom got nearer to each other than about twelve feet. ______ J